New Year - New Socks

Remember this..............................my first attempt at hand painting yarn.

I turned it into these...........................

Two pairs of socks finished this month, both are from patterns by the wonderful Anni of Sockmania (if you haven't joined you really should). The first pair are the New Year's Sock (January) and the second pair are Snowflakes (December). Every month Anni provides a free pattern (and they really are spectacular sock patterns) if you knit the socks you are eligible for the drawing of Anni's hand dyed yarn. Check out her Etsy shop - more patterns and wonderful yarns.

I just cast on the Mystery Sock and I am also finishing up Elijah by the amazing Ysolda.

Hats

If you were a hat would you be:

Funky!

Trendy!

Functional!

Cute!

Winter Wonderland

We are supposed to get snow clobbered this weekend, so in the spirit of "let it snow, let it snow", these are what I have been working on.


The December Snowflake Sock from the Sockmania KAL. Each month Anni (be sure to take a peek at the shop) sends all of those who are signed up a wonderful pattern for FREE!!!. I am using Cherry Tree Hill in Amethyst and Knit Picks undyed for the snow. I love this easy pattern, you can double the fair isle snowflakes and have them go all the way down the leg or stop one repeat. If you want to be a member of the KAL, email Anni before the end of the month and you will be on the January list.

This wonderful little snowman hat is a present for a great-neice. I used a simple hat pattern, needle felted the eyes and mouth with black roving and icorded an orange nose. The nose is stuffed with cotton batting and a "peep cleaner" thereby making it bendable. I used Elsebeth Lavold Chunky AL for the hat and nose, on size 8 needles, I had it in the stash. This is a wonderfully soft yarn if you haven't tried it, 50% Alpaca and 50% Peruvian Wool, it's great for felting as well as other chunky projects.

He's a cutie, I will use this next year for a few baby/toddler gifts. Easy knit finished in one night, felted and dryed for two days, needle felted in about an hour.

We spent the weekend in New York visiting our grandaughter and her parents, and meeting the new man in her life "Rocky". I had the opportunity on Friday morning to skate on the ice at Rockerfeller Center (that's me in the black pants and pinky sweater, I never could skate with my coat on) - expensive but thrilling, not to mention a little dangerous when you consider that about 99.9% of the people on the ice had never had skates on before. I was very proud of myself, I haven't had my skates on in about five years and I did just fine, no falling, no holding on, just wonderful freedom, it's like riding a bike.........you never forget how.

Rocky

Swedish Gnome

I finished this little sprite yesterday. He's an Alan Dart design from a Christmas supplement that Simply Knitting had a few years back. I have knitted a few of over the years, they make wonderful last minute gifts. It takes only a few hours to knit and another couple of hours to finish and stuff. My knitting group is having the exchange gift we draw numbers and choose a bag, he will be headed sit under an other tree on Wednesday.

Spending Thanksgiving in Boulder was wonderful and to see James even better, although he will be home on the 22nd I still miss him. We head to New York on Thursday to see Rob, Sherry, Avery and Rocky (Avery's new horse). I get to go shopping on Friday before heading out to Long Island, it's a sort of a whirlwind trip as we will be home Sunday evening.

We spent the last three days decorating the house, inside and out, we look full of Christmas spirit. I wrote the Christmas letter on Thursday, addressed and signed the cards and they are in the mail today. We are almost finished with the shopping, I will spend a day next week wrapping and sending out packages, I have a few more treats to bake but in general we are finished with the majority of the Christmas "stress".

It is bitterly cold and windy today, with flurries, I turned the lights on the tree on at noon and every time I turn to look at it I can see the snow coming down behind it.

The Knitting Detective

Emerson,

The Knitting Detective

First Snow

We woke up Friday morning to our first snow, always a special day.

We went out on Saturday and bought feed to fill the feeders. We keep them filled all winter and attract all manner of birds and a few squirrels, my favotire is a tiny red squirrel who has been visiting us for the past few years.

The maple trees were covered, the snow was a great help in bringing down most of the remaining leaves, another week and we will be totally free and clear for the fall.

I still knit

In case you think I have foresaken knitting in favor of swaps and exchanges I wanted to prove that my needles have been busy. The waving lace socks from 25 Favorites, are in VanCalcer yarn I think the colour is bricks. It's actually a little darker in colour and has a wonderful sheen, this a very pretty socks and I like the pattern so much I may knit myself a pair.

The sweater and hat are a from a kit I bought from Morehouse Farm, I had enough yarn left to knit another hat and pair of mittens in a smaller size for a baby gift. I also finished a cardigan, hat and socks for the baby of my hair stylist but I forgot to take a picture. I used the Shibu Vintage pattern, using All Things Heather Strawberry Surprise colourway, it turned out better than I had hoped and will be doing this again - one skein for a baby gift (about 550 yards) of sock yarn.

The "we call them pirates" hat is for a great-neice, she is into goth and I never know what to give her for Hanukkah this is perfect, I used KnitPicks Palette in black and white and the free pattern from Hello Yarn. I am also knitting a pair of socks in the new Socks that Rock Raven collection, I have choosen Rauen which as deep wine and brown mixed in with the black.

I have lots of socks going at one time, at the present I have five single socks waiting for their partners, I have to stop jumping from pattern to pattern it's making me dizzy. We are off to Colorado next week for Thanksgiving, I should have lots of time to knit on the plane both going and coming.

Trying my hand at dyeing

Yesterday was the monthly meeting of the Fibre Artists, the knitting and stitching group from school. Even though two of us are now retired, the five or six regular members, try to meet once a month to show finished projects, new projects and learn a new technique. Pat was our instructor yesterday in the art of Kool Aid dyeing. I was a spectator yesterday, but was spurred on to try my hand at home today. Pat used the canning jar, hot water, and microwave method. I switched it up a little and eliminated the canning jars.

I had a skein of Bare from Knit Picks, superwash sock yarn, at $5.99 for 460 yards this is a bargin. I had four different packages of Kool Aid in the closet, not something I bought but packets that were gifted in various swaps and exchanges. I had Lemonade, Tropical Punch, Pink Lemonade, and Orange. It has to be the regular Kool Aid the one to add sugar to not the kind that already has sugar added.

I tied the yarn skein into six sections and then soaked itin warm water and a slug of champagne vinegar for about 30 minutes, I would have used regular white vinegar but was out, champagne seemed the next best thing.

I mixed the Kool Aid in four separate plastic cups, with hot water. I used 1/4 cup of water for the lemon and the pink as they were the lighter colours and 1/2 cup of water for the orange and the tropical punch (which is a red colour). I wanted the depth of the colour to be the same throughout the skein.

Instead of putting the dye in the canning jars, dipping in the yarn and putting it in the microwave, I hand painted the yarn section by section using a stencil brush. I placed each tied off section in a small plastic container, poured a little of the dye on top of the yarn and began to dabb with the brush. I turned the yarn over and seperated it in order to dye the entire section.


I did this with each section, after I had four sections completed I began to mix and match the dyes and added a little more hot water. When I had all six sections dyed, I placed the yarn in a large round ceramic dish and microwaved it for 2 minutes, I let it cool for two minutes, then microwaved again for 2 minutes. I let the yarn sit for about 30 minutes to cool off, rinsed in warm water to rinse of the excess dye, of which there wasn't any.

I squeezed out the water, it ran clear, and I placed the skein on a clean town (an old one just incase any dye came out - it didn't)

Then I hung it up to dry over the bathtub. The colours are wonderful, vivid, strong, and very appealing, it reminds me of Starburst colours. The entire process took about an hour, I used no harsh chemicals, I had everything on hand, yarn, Kool Aid, plastic gloves (this is after all dye), old towels, plastic garbage bag under towels, plastic cups, plastic fork to stir with, plastic container, and stencil brush. The entire process cost under $7.00, am really looking forward to seeing how it turns out when it's wound into a ball and I begin to knit with it. I will definately try this again, using purples and greens or orange and turquoise next time my favorite colour combinations.